Travel the Home Exchange Way

Enhancing a Home Exchange Offer: Tips for Photographing Your Home, Tip 7 (of 7) - Locality Features

Tip 7 : Locality Features.

When people are looking for a home to exchange, they are also interested in what is around the area. Schools, churches, golf courses, sports centres, shops and shopping centres and whatever else your area has of interest. If it’s a distance away from features, then you might show public transport such as nearest bus stop, station or airport. If you are prepared to make your car, bike or whatever available for your exchange partners' use, then make the suggestion. Add photos of these areas and also any places of interest in your neighbourhood.

Examples from current home exchange listings:

Photo, left: house in Juneau, Wisconsin, USA, HE19814

Photo, above: cottage in Haworth, Yorkshire, England, HE19812

Photo, above: apartment in Marina del Este, Andalucia, Spain, HE17147

Photo, right: house in Blackwood, Gwent, Wales, HE14267

In conclusion ...

Tell a story with your photographs. People want to know more than how many beds you have, and whether you have a dining area. These (provided the exchange party can be comfortably accommodated in your home) are not as important as the lifestyle you are offering to share with your home exchange partners.

Looking through the photos Lois sent as possible examples of the tips I've covered, I have realised that family personalities do come out in the photos and that is great. For example, in the photos used in this listing (house in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, HE19765), I like the child influence and the family sounds fun.

Marguerite Carstairs 2007©

http://M-carstairs.com http://M-carstairs.com/ebooks http://Activeenglish.biz

Enhancing a Home Exchange Offer: Tips for Photographing Your Home, Tip 6 (of 7) - Pets, Gardens, Pools, Services

Tip 6 : Are there pets or garden routines, or services that your home exchange guests would need to attend to? A pond or pool may require maintenance as does solar systems and lawns. Show photographs of these so the member knows to ask questions about what may be involved in terms of time and commitment. You may offer to leave the internet on, and stop external calls on the telephone. If these items are negotiable for your exchange partner's use, aim to show them in photographs. I would be lost without the Internet, for instance, so that needs to be discussed and negotiated.

Examples from homes currently available for exchange:

Photo, above: cottage in Monda, Malaga, Spain, HE19632

Photo, right: (same as above)

Photo, left: cottage in Dorsington, Warwickshire, England, HE13149

Marguerite Carstairs 2007©

http://M-carstairs.com http://M-carstairs.com/ebooks http://Activeenglish.biz

Enhancing a Home Exchange Offer: Tips for Photographing Your Home, Tip 5 (of 7) - Using Unusual Angles and Portrait Shots

Tip 5: Unusual angles and portrait shots give different dimensions. If it’s a high-rise apartment or an unusual building, show this in the photo to entice the viewer. If there are extra features such as a pool, patio, barbecue area or pagodas and atriums, show these as you want to highlight the living features of the house, not possessions, for here you are selling a lifestyle to potential home exchange partners, not simply the house.

Examples for current homes available for exchange:

Photo, above: house in Sherfield English, Hampshire, England, HE19800

Photo, right: house in Maple Bay, BC, Canada, HE17794

Photo, above: house in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, England, HE12989

Photo, right: house in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England, HE15545

Note to Home Base Holidays members: by all means use a variety of photos, including portrait shots, but choose a photo in landscape format as Picture 1. This photo is also included as a small thumbnail in your summary listing shown in search results (using a landscape photo avoids distortion in the thumbnail photo).

Marguerite Carstairs 2007©

http://M-carstairs.com http://M-carstairs.com/ebooks http://Activeenglish.biz

Enhancing a Home Exchange Offer: Tips for Photographing Your Home, Tip 4 (of 7) - Include Different Outside Views

Tip 4: Include a rear and maybe side view of the house too. This shows whether there is a garden, the locality, the back features and sets a location and perspective to the property. Use flash to avoid dark corners and areas, or take the photograph when the light is good. If you have a garden that your home exchange partners would need to maintain, make sure this is also shown.

Examples of different outside views of current homes available for exchange:

Photo, above: house in Chaco del Palo, Lanzarote, Canary Islands, HE18764

Photo, right: cottage in Appleby, Cumbria, England, HE19593

Photo, left: house in Honeoye, New York, USA, HE19763

Marguerite Carstairs 2007©

http://M-carstairs.com http://M-carstairs.com/ebooks http://Activeenglish.biz

Enhancing a Home Exchange Offer: Tips for Photographing Your Home, Tip 3 (of 7) - Full View of Entrance

Tip 3: Include a full photograph of the home from an entrance point. This also helps your home exchange guests to find the home when they first come. They also get an idea of what the house or apartment block actually looks like from the street, whether there is a garage and parking, and maybe the garden and the general appearance. It also sets a standard for what you expect the house to be maintained like in neatness, order, and presentation.

Examples of good front views of homes:

Photo, above: cottage in Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire, England, HE18628

Photo, right: house in Oliver, BC, Canada, HE18776

Photo, left: house in Haines City, Florida, USA, HE19644

Marguerite Carstairs 2007©

http://M-carstairs.com http://M-carstairs.com/ebooks http://Activeenglish.biz

Enhancing a Home Exchange Offer: Tips for Photographing Your Home, Tip 2 (of 7) - Focus on an Area

Tip 2: Focus on an area. By adding a person or people you can show the size and dimensions of the room and area, using the photograph to share a story with potential home exchange partners. This can be more effective, and better understood, than actually showing the whole room, especially if there are features associated with an area.

Examples of photos that focus on one area or use a person or objects (the set table) to give an idea of the size of a room:

Photo, above: cottage in Haworth (Bronte Country), Yorkshire, England, HE19812

Photo, right: house in Sharnford, Leicestershire, England, HE14668

Photo, left: house in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, HE13370

Marguerite Carstairs 2007©

http://M-carstairs.com http://M.carstairs.com/ebooks http://Activeenglish.biz

Enhancing a Home Exchange Offer: Tips for Photographing Your Home, Tip 1 (of 7) - Lighting

Tip 1: Lighting. Always use flash for indoor photos, and outdoor photos too. If you are photographing close-ups, lessen the flash or you will end up with a white photo. No flash gives you a dark photo.

Examples of good indoor photographs from current Home Base Holidays members' home exchange listings:

Photo, left: an apartment in Dartmouth, Devon, England, HE18562

Photo, above: a house in Harrogate, Yorkshire, England, HE5309

Photo, above: a house in Albany, Oregon, USA, HE17903

Photo, right: a house in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, HE19472

Marguerite Carstairs 2007©

http://M-carstairs.com

http://M-carstairs.com/ebooks

http://Activeenglish.biz

Enhancing a Home Exchange Offer: Tips for Photographing Your Home, an Introduction

After taking the time to write an informative and enticing home exchange offer description, the very best way to enhance it is to add good quality photos as soon as possible after joining Home Base Holidays (up to eight photos). However, not everyone is an expert photographer or has an eye for taking interesting shots that will give potential exchange partners a good overall idea of what a home is like. For this reason, I am delighted that Marguerite Carstairs has agreed to share some brief photography tips with members and visitors.

Marguerite, a teacher, has also worked as an Estate Agent in West Australia, during which time she created websites for houses she had listed for sale. She has had extensive experience with showing homes to their best advantage for the retail market, and much of the same advice is relevant for members listing homes for exchange. Marguerite is currently in Korea, and enjoys exploring with her camera.

This series of posts will focus on the most important aspects to consider both when taking photos and deciding which to include to best illustrate your home exchange offer (one tip a day, starting from tomorrow).

Marguerite writes:

"If you need to take photographs of your home, whether for Exchange, Sale or Rental, you will first create what is called a ‘Pictorial Portfolio’ of your home. You can use this collection for any reason you wish, download it onto a CD or flash video program, or create a Power Point or E-Book which you can share. However, for a home exchanger, the most important use of the Pictorial Portfolio is to collect together a variety of photos to add to their home exchange listing.

The most important feature about your Portfolio is the quality of your photographs. Make sure, above all, that they are attractive and clear, so the viewer knows what you are focusing on and why. Quality has nothing to do with the size of your camera or the equipment you use. It has a lot to do with how you take the photograph which is what I will concentrate on in this series: Tips for Photographing Your Home. Your aim is to show what your home is all about. Think of it as creating a story around your house or apartment, making your story interesting and real."

While looking for good photos to illustrate each of Marguerite's tips, it was great to see that a number of Home Base Holidays members already cover all the points in the seven tips on making the best use of photos very well. The two photos shown here are from a current home exchange listing in Haines City, Florida. See the full exchange offer and all photos, HE19644. Marguerite's comment on the photos included in this listing:

"good series, clear photos, careful presentation."

Look out for Tip 1 tomorrow.

Marguerite Carstairs 2007©

http://M-carstairs.com

http://M-carstairs.com/ebooks

http://Activeenglish.biz

Home Exchange Offers: Mass Mailings vs Personalised Messages

Q: Are your members able to contact prospective exchangers by writing one email and forwarding it to several people? One site allows you to send 20 at once off to prospective members. Thanks. Margaret, BC, Canada

A: No, this isn't possible on Home Base Holidays. Members are encouraged to compose a standard, informative exchange offer message which can then easily be copied and pasted into the contact form in each member's listing. However, the reason we don't allow members to send such standard messages to several people at once is that, taking just a few minutes to personalise each message before sending (addressing the member by name, including a sentence or two on what has attracted you to their particular exchange offer and addressing any special needs they may have mentioned in their exchange listing), encourages members to carefully target those they send exchange offers to. And a member who receives a thoughtful, personalised offer is much more likely to respond positively than if sent an impersonal, standard message, with no acknowledgement of their own exchange request or particular needs, and which, it's fairly obvious has probably been sent to many other members.

Arranging a home exchange is all about developing a trusting relationship with another member so that, by the time the exchange takes place, both will feel comfortable leaving their homes in each other's care. It helps develop this from the very first contact when members take just that little bit extra time to compose thoughtful, personalised exchange offers.

A Life Changing Home Exchange Story (Part 4 of 4)

'The other best bit about this story, which started out with our home swap in France, is that, as we headed home to England from our exchange visit, Mark proposed to me. That he did it in France was so romantic ... but the rest of that story is another story! Oh, I said yes by the way and we got married in April.'

Now, even if your fantasy doesn't become reality quite as dramatically as Kathy's did (retired, a new home in France - and a new husband!), you might at least sample the good life in rural France during a home exchange holiday. See if Kathy's description and photos of their new home in Saint Savin, Poitou-Charentes will tempt you:

'Our 3/4 bed longhouse is set in an acre of wooded garden, plenty of shade for the heat of the summer. Cool interior, plenty of outdoor seating. Beautiful rural France, 40 mins from Poitiers and Furturoscope, 1.5 hours to Limoges, 20 mins Montmorillon (The Town of Writers) and within the triangle of ancient churches. 10 mins from the beautiful town of Saint Savin and it's wonderful abbey. 20 mins from the medieval town of Chauvigny, glorious Saturday market, and a great bird display in the ancient city.' See the full home exchange offer, HE15259, and more photos.